Dr. Augustus White, III, author of Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care and a pioneer in equitable care delivered the keynote address at this year’s Diversity Summit at the 2011 BIO International Convention in Washington, D.C. The Summit brought together an esteemed panel of speakers to discuss integrating diverse and underserved populations with the medical, agricultural, and energy research industries.

The panel discussion revealed the dire need for reaching out to diverse groups. Patients have died because they did not feel as though they had the right to ask questions to their medical provider, partially due to the cultural differences between patients and their doctors.

According to Dr. Vivian Pinn, medical journals should require study submissions to include a breakdown of different populations involved in clinical trials and be encouraged to have a more diverse trial population. Dr. Gary Puckerin added that biotech companies need to realize that the consumer is changing; the industry needs to address the growing market to effectively create treatments and cures for diverse populations.